This blog and the public radio show it promoted are no more now that I've moved to Sacramento, CA. Here's the original description: Hawaii Public Radio's Energy Futures program airs weekly on Mondays at 5 pm HST. Topics include renewable energy development, reducing Hawaii's dependence on imported fuels and others that will help residents understand the options before them as they and their fellow citizens chart a new energy future for Hawaii.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Callers Ask, Get Answers from Solar Energy Experts

Our Energy Futures program on Hawaii Public Radio is only six weeks into its run, so we don’t know whether today's 11 phone calls are anything to write (home) about. But it was the most we’ve had so far, and that undoubtedly had to do with the subject – solar energy.

Hawaii could be the solar energy capital of the country, or maybe that’s “should be” in light of our 270 days of sunshine on average, depending on where you live – windward, leeward, shadeward, sunward….

Mark Duda, president of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association and a principal of Distributed Energy Partners, and Riley Saito, senior projects manager in Hawaii for SunPower Corporation, fielded the questions and gave our listeners more info than they’re likely to extract from the daily media. The program will be archived at HPR's website sometime on 8/11.

That’s our loosely held goal for the program – to provide a conversation on energy-related issues in Hawaii that encompasses the listening audience. It seemed to work today.

Next Week, No Calls

We’ve recorded a program with Dr. Stephen Schneider, member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with former Vice President Al Gore. He’s our first and only Nobel Laureate, and we can only hope for more.

Dr. Schneider will discuss global warming, climate change, implications for Hawaii and other critical issues that affect all of us – including generations yet unborn. The show will be broadcast at 5 pm Monday August 17 on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and streamed on the Internet.

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About Me

After five years of active-duty service as an Army officer with duty stations in West Berlin and South Vietnam, reported and edited for newspapers and broadcast stations (including all-news radio) in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu. Covered Honolulu city government for the Honolulu Advertiser and KGMB-TV. Served on Congressman Cec Heftel's staff in Honolulu and Washington, then managed corporate communications and was Hawaiian Electric Company's spokesman for nearly a decade. A communications consultant for 19 years before moving to California in 2012. Launched, produced and hosted Hawaii Public Radio's "live" weekly "Energy Futures" public affairs program in 2009-10. Authored books on The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific ("Punchbowl" 1982) and on the decline of standard grammar in business and society ("Me and Him Are Killing English!" 2007). Now an information officer with the California Department of Water Resources.